Monday, June 21, 2010

I win!

We had ants. Lots and lots of ants. They adored my kitchen nook. If I was an ant I would too. With 4 kids, one of whom is a toddler, no matter how I tried, I could not keep all the crumbs off the floor all the time. Even when I thought I got them all and would go to bed thinking I'd get up to a bug free kitchen, inevitably, they'd be everywhere in the morning, hunting minuscule crumbs for their queen.

We dropped pest control long ago. It's pricey and chemical laden and, while it seemed effective, I always was confused when I got my bill because I seemed to paying a lot for a little. I've beaten ants back before with vinegar and cream of tartar and chalk and dryer sheets. That didn't seem to work now. Husband sprayed outside himself but this group was a particularly tenacious bunch and just kept coming.

So I turned to the internet before I gave in and had the bug guy come. I saw lots of recommendations for vinegar, some for baking soda, and many more. But then I saw a suggestion for Borax. I have Borax for making my laundry soap and apparently if you mix a little bit in something yummy for the ants they will take it back to their queen and they will all eat it and go to their ant hill in the sky. Sounded like a plan to me.

I mixed some nice sugary maple syrup with a little Borax, put it on a canning jar lid and put it near where the ants were coming in (but where the kids couldn't see or reach it. It's not safe for kids to ingest that and I have a few kids that would have wanted to take a lick of maple syrup if they had the chance.)

Back to the drawing board. Next concoction: 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise to 1/8 of a teaspoon Borax. They key apparently is not to overload the treat with the poison or they won't touch it.

I put it down and waited, but I didn't have to wait long.

For 2 or 3 days they streamed steadily to the "mayax" and back to their home. Some died en route, and there was a nice ring of expired ants around the lid of death as well, which made me wonder if it was too strong, but I think they were just the weaker ants because plenty of others came and went.

And then there were none.

They just quit coming.

I've tested it out. Friday night I got home from Bunco and there were crumbs everywhere. I went to bed without bothering to clean it. I got up in the morning fully expecting to have to fight the cheeky little buggers again.

Nope.

HA! I win! And it could not have been cheaper. You know how I love cheap.

So remember: 1 tbsp mayo and 1/8 of a teaspoon Borax and keep it away from your kids and pets. It takes a few days, but it's effective and cheap.

DEAL OF THE DAY!!!

CONTACT ME!!!!

Have a question? Did you do your own version of one of my ideas and want to tell me about it? Drop me an email!
mom3girlsand1boy@gmail.com

Recipe of the Whenever I Get Around to Changing It.

Crockpot Tapioca Pudding (by request)

Ingredients:

2 quarts of 1% milk (half-gallon)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup small pearl tapioca (The only place I found it was Raley's)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

In a four quart or larger size crockpot, combine the milk, sugar, and tapioca pearls. Stir well to mix. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours. You are looking for the tapioca to be soft and kind of slimy. The mixture will not be very thick, but that's how it's supposed to be. Even if it is thick, that's ok too.

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with the vanilla. Take a 1/2 cup of the hot milk and tapioca mixture and whisk it into the egg bowl. Add another 1/2 cup of the hot milk and tapioca, and whisk that into the eggs, too. Then add yet another. Now you'll have a bowl of yellowy tapioca/egg mix.

Pour the contents of the egg/tapioca mix into the crockpot, and whisk until it is all well mixed.

Cover your crockpot and cook on high for another 30-45 minutes, or until the tapioca is pudding-like in consistency. Unplug and let it sit for about an hour to cool.

Ladle into serving-size bowls and chill in the refrigerator.

Or eat it hot hot hot right out of your crockpot. That's how we do it. So yummy on rainy Fall and Winter days.